Stream Three
The third stream of Dungeons & DragonHat took place on Saturday, 14 September 2013, and lasted approximately three hours. There was no stream the previous week due to DragonHat's computer misbehaving. *Episode 6 (45 minutes) on YouTube *Episode 7 (45 minutes) on YouTube *Episode 8 (45 minutes) on YouTube *Episode 9 (38 minutes) on YouTube Summary Episode Six After two full days of travel, the Adventurers arrive in Casterby but are disturbed that no people are visible. They investigate the town and come to the conclusion that its residents simply vanished. They decide the spend the night with the horses in the stables, with Ignitus taking the first watch. Episode Seven Ignitus wakes Ana saying he can see a shadowy figure, but Ana can't see it and takes over from Ignitus. She sees one of the giant hawks and it tells her it is merely watching them. Leokul wakes everybody during his shift claiming to have seen a shadowy figure as well as many zombies, but they again see nothing of the sort. Tossur takes over and Ignitus joins him, and they go to investigate a noise from down an alley. Episode Eight Episode Nine Events Arriving at Casterby The Adventurers spend two days travelling on horseback from Dawnlight, making camp each night but sleeping unsoundly. On the morning of the third day they enter Casterby only to see nobody in the main street. Knowing the horses will be run into the ground if they don't stay, Ignitus immediately take his into the stables and secures it in a comparment, but Ana stays mounted outside, saying she doesn't like this place and thinks they should keep moving and settle outside the town. Ignitus admits it's creepy and suggests they at least investigate before coming to a decision, then adds that he's going to investigate anyway. Leokul reminds everyone that he wants new armour and parks his horse in the stables too. Ana decides to stay with the horses and look after them, so brings hers into the stables also. She sends Mira onto the roof of the stables to keep an eye out. Tossur also brings his horse into the stables, wondering if everyone is worshipping in church. Ana looks around the stables, noticing it looks like somebody was present earlier that morning. She stays tending the horses while the others split up to explore the town. Investigating the abandoned town Ignitus looks in the nearest building, a storage structure filled with food supplies and building supplies, but no people. He moves to the adjacent inn and after tripping up at the door, heads upstairs to find several rooms apparently in use, having travelling supplies in them, but also about six rooms that are empty. He heads back to the stables. Tossur investigates the church, which is empty but looking like it's been prepared for a sermon. He crosses to the town hall opposite, finding many papers on mercantile and construction matters strewn on desks as though in the process of being looked over. A candle is burning in one office as though someone had spent the night. Feeling creeped out he heads back to the stables. Leokul goes to the blacksmiths to see if he can pick up some armour, either legitimately or through theivery. He finds no people or armour, but the coal stock looks freshly filled, the fires are stoked and look to have been burning for about an hour, and a piece of metal on the anvil looks recently hammered. He briefly considers stealing the anvil, but its weight dissuades him. He checks the tavern across the street, finding similar unattended evidence of recent use, and helps himself to a drink before returning to the stables. Preparing for the night Back at the stables, the Adventurers share their findings and agree it looks as though the residents simply vanished. Leokul is happy to stay in the inn, but Ignitus and Ana agree they don't want to spend the night where people have vanished, with Ignitus adding that it won't look good if they're there if and when the townsfolk return. A baying wolf in the distance prompts Tossur to declare he doesn't want to stay outside either, so Ignitus suggests they stay in the stables where, if anything happens, they can swiftly mount the horses and scarper. They agree to take shifts guarding the stables, with Ignitus taking first watch, followed by Ana, then Leokul. Tossur notes with dismay this means he'll have to get up early. Ignitus asks Ana if Mira can accompany the guards to keep a sharper lookout, but Ana indignantly says Mira needs to sleep as well, then puts her back against the wall of the stable and casts Detect Magic. She detects none, and tells the others so. Ignitus takes a stool outside to prepare for the night, and is joined briefly by Leokul, who confides in him that more blood appeared on his hands when he was searching the tavern, and asks him not to tell the others. Ignitus says he believes him, and agrees to keep it a secret, adding a request to be informed of any further developments. Ignitus's shift During his shift, Ignitus spots a shadowy figure in the middle of the road about 100 feet away. Without taking his eyes off it he shakes Ana awake, who at first assumes it's her shift. When he tries to point out the figure to her, she sees nothing, to Ignitus's frustration. She offers to start her shift now, which Ignitus accepts. Ana's shift Ana wakes Mira and they stand guard outside. They spot a giant hawk watching them from across the street, so she casts Speak With Animals and consults with Mira. She decides to go over and try talking to it, instructing Mira to maintain position and wake the others up by any means should anything bad happen ("Don't injure them too badly," she specifies). She asks the hawk what it wants, which replies that it is merely watching them. Ana's spell runs out, so she returns to her post, redoubling her attentiveness but waiting until the end of her shift. Her duties done, she nudges Leokul awake for his shift and tells her what she saw and what it said, adding that she recognizes it as definitely being a roc of the type that distributed Arcanon's pamphlets. Leokul's shift Leokul shouts at everyone to wake up, rambling about there being shambling corpses outside. Ana immediately grabs and loads her sling with a rock, Ignitus weilds his scythe and Tossur holds his dagger out; they run towards the door and look outside, with Leokul feeling emboldened and joining them with his weapons also drawn. The others see no zombies, so Tossur heads back inside and re-enters his trance, while Ana is frustrated at being awoken another time by needless alarm. She irritatedly asks Leokul how long he's been awake, prompting Ignitus to put his hand on her shoulder and tell her to go back to sleep, but she shrugs it off and looks about further just in case. Ignitus and Ana start arguing, Ana feeling as though Ignitus is dismissing her, Ignitus frustrated that his actions are being interpreted as such. Sharing accounts Leokul goes up to Ignitus and whispers to him what he saw: a shadowy figure by the bakery who disappeared by the time Leokul had snuck over. The door to the bakery was open, so Leokul presumed the figure had gone inside; he shuts the door to trap him inside and (his voice raising in volume to become very audible) was headed back to the stables to get the others when he saw the shambling corpses. Ignitus tells Leokul he also saw a shadowy figure and presumes that if he'd persued it, the zombies would have appeared to him as well. He says that the other two haven't seen anything, but remembers that Tossur saw a bird; he's remembering back to the cliff, but Leokul asks if he means Ana (Ignitus not having been told about the roc she saw that night). Ana hears this and approaches as Leokul passes on Ana's report to Ignitus, which she confirms. Ignitus is initially slightly relieved that they've all seen weird things, but Ana reminds him that the bird she saw was real, whereas their figures were illusory. Leokul accuses her of believing their sightings to be paranoid illusions, while Ignitus says that even if they aren't real, something weird is going on if he and Leokul shared the same delusion. Ana reminds him that she had earlier detected no magic in the town, which Ignitus dismisses as relevant, so Ana throws her hands in the air, clarifies with Leokul that the figure went into the bakery, and walks towards it to investigate. She throws open the door and casts Light on the first object she sees, which happens to be a bread loaf. With nothing more than baked good illuminated, she steps back so others can see, gestures inside and says sarcastically "Were you being chased by loaves of bread?" Ignitus asks frustratedly if she can at least acknowledge their sightings as representative of something, but Ana only mumbles to herself in Druidic and returns to the stables. Tossur's shift When Leokul returns to the stables, Tossur asks if he should start his shift at this point, adding that he thinks Leokul should go to sleep. Ignitus decides to stay up with Tossur, who gives precise instructions to his raven: "Gullespie, sit at the top of the tree and if you see anyone except the four of us, shout at me and tell me where they are." Tossur and Ignitus remain on watch for some time, hearing only wolves in the distance, and almost become comfortable before they hear what sounds like someone tripping over in one of the alleyways. Ignitus immediately says "Don't care!" but Tossur requests that he care enough to watch his back while he investigates. Instead, Tossur tells Gullespie to look down the alley from atop the building opposite it. Gull perches on the carpenter's and says he sees splayed barrels by the side of the inn that look like they've been knocked over, then Tossur does go and investigate, Ignitus keeping an eye on him from the stables. Tossur sees only barrels down the alley. Ignitus decides to take the still-glowing bread from the bakery and throw it down the alley, but as he steps away from the stables Tossur sees the shadowy figure behind him, and it disappears down the alley next to the stables. Tossur makes him throw the bread there instead, and hides behind him. Ignitus sees the bread land by the feet of someone who appears identical to his father, which he tells Tossur, adding that he doesn't believe it's actually him, and that he's going down the alley towards it. Tossur: What? Well, where's your father meant to be? Ignitus: Not here. I'm going down, are you following with me? 'Tossur: '''I'm sticking to you, Muscle Man. Separated down alleys As they proceed down the alley, Tossur turns around and screams, but Ignitus just continues to the figure of his father and questions him. Getting only a growl in response he prods the figure with the handle of his scythe, but the figure is solid. Questioning the figure again, it responds "You coward, you should not be here." Ignitus turns to Tossur, but Tossur is not there. The figure grabs the outstretched weapon, and when Ignitus turns to look its appearance has changed into his own. He stares into his own face grinning madly back at him. Ignitus swipes at the figure, which dissolves into feathers. Ignitus picks up the still-glowing bread and goes to return up the alley when Tossur appears from the alley on the other side of the stables. Both shakily say they're fine but need a rest, and they return to the guard post. Once there, Tossur asks what was down the alley, to which Ignitus replies that he saw "someone very close to me". Tossur asks where they went. Ignitus says they just disappeared. Tossur says he also saw someone "from home" who disappeared. Ignitus asks how they disappeared. Tossur says he disappeared into feathers, and Ignitus says his figure did the same. Tossur wonders if the feathers are still there and they go to look but find no feathers and no footprints besides their own. Back at the makeshift guard post in front of the stables, Ignitus says they shouldn't tell Ana what happened to them, considering that she hasn't been understanding so far, and Tossur agrees to it. "I don't think we should really ruffle feathers," he says, sending a shiver down his own spine. Tossur asks if they should confide in Leokul, and Ignitus thinks they should. They both fall asleep before morning. Good morning The Adventures are woken up by a stable master who appears very confused. Ignitus remains diplomatic, apologizing for the inconvenience, saying they had to spend the night somewhere, but the stable master says he overheard them in the tavern saying they'd booked rooms in the inn. Tossur remains cautious of the stable master tries to run through his memories of last night, but does not recall drinking alcohol or seeing any other humanoids. Leokul can't detect any dishonesty or doubt in the stable master's words. Ana can't find her purse, but when Mira drops it into her hands she counts out the same money she had before, minus an amount reasonable for one person's inn and stable fares, prompting Tossur to check his own money, which is much the same. Answering the Adventurers' questions, the stable master says they spoke to and him personally when they arrived in town, looking very haggard, and also to Mary the innkeeper. He says the town had a wedding two days ago and there's been parying ever since, with the inn and tavern quite busy. Ana casts Speak With Animals again and asks Mira if they went to the inn or tavern, which Mira does not remember. Ana asks the horses if they remember seeing the stable master last night, but they're intelligent enough only to say they can see him now. Ana looks for Gullespie but can't see him, so she asks Tossur, who realizes he's still outside. They go out, seeing plenty of people in the street, and find Gullespie asleep where Tossur left him atop the carpenter's. He tries, embarrassed, to call Gull awake, but Ana just tries to wake him in Raven language. Gullespie awakes and falls to the ground. Ana asks what he remembers, and he remembers the same as the rest of them. Back in the stables, despite the stable master trying to get them to move outside so he can continue his duties, Leokul asks Ignitus what else happened last night, and Ignitus shares entirely what he knows of it, describing the figure Tossur saw as a 'family member', adding that they've agreed not to tell Ana. Leokul agrees and the head out. Memorable quotes Dungeon Master's introduction "Our quartet of curious folk have spent the last two days on horseback travelling from their erroneous landing site at Dawnlight, making camp each night along the trail before pressing on each morning. Their dreams ''en route have been largely dark and though few details can be recalled on waking, few hours on the hard ground have gone unspent without a cold sweat, whimpers or the sound of tossing and turning. As a consequence, the group is much relieved to at last find sign of civilization, as Casterby looms on the horizon early in the morning of their third day. "Casterby is much more developed than Dawnlight, owing to its position on a common transit route, and its layout has been greatly influenced by that same factor. It appears much as one might expect of a Western gold rush town, with buildings array? around a single, central street and stores fit to supply almost any need? a long trek. There's a tavern, ? stables, a pair of inns that one might presume to be in competition, and several stores strewn throughout the small and new dwelling. "But all seems not to be quite right in this quaint place. For, through the light mists of the moring, you are quick to discover that, far more concerning than the familiar silence of all nature around you, and despite the completed and largely furnished dwellings, there is not a single person visible on the main street of the town. "And so, once again, we bid you all welcome into this new installment of Dungeons & DragonHats." Notes Story, setting and characters *For the first time, Ana casts Detect Magic, which will become one of her staple spells as they encounter more moss, taint and apparitions. *Ana speaks to a creature other than Mira using Speak With Animals for the first time. *Leokul calls Ignitus 'Meatwall'. Tossur calls him 'Muscle Man'. External references *When Lying disconnects from Skype, Crane and Dragon come up with "This is why we can't have nice campaigns". Well, Dragon came up with it, but Crane tweeted it. When Dragon complains, Crane sings from the 2006 OneRepublic song "Apologize". *While Lying is still having connection issues, Crane starts a series of 'formels'. This in-joke was made on the LXG TeamSpeak about a month earlier, when Liam pronounced 'FML' as 'formel' (parts later that evening were recorded by Dragon). It started as a way of joking about minor annoyances about highly priviledged circumstances. *While Lying gives his introduction, Glitch, Bunce and Dragon play with their Agent 47 toys from the Hitman Absolution stand at Eurogamer Expo 2012. *Liam plays with a large Sackboy statue. *When Ana says she's looking after the horses, Andy says she's going "full Barbie". Liam starts singing "I love horses, they're my friends". *When Andy thinks Ana has sent her horse onto the roof, Crane jokes "What do your equine eyes see?", the third stream in a row this reference is made. It reoccurs later when the Adventurers are looking for zombies. *Gullespie briefly thinks he's a kestrel, and makes the noise made by the character Kestrel from The Animals of Farthing Wood. *When the music becomes creepier, Lying mentions his research for this session included the original Silent Hill] soundtrack. Bunce asks if they checked to see what their four horses are of. *Andy sings a brief excerpt from The Twilight Zone theme. *While Lying converses with Dragon, Buncible entertains viewers by telling some jokes, such as "What do you call a turnip in a conservatory?" and "What do you call a melon in a litter tray?". These are fashioned after the joke Buncible tells in VGToolbox's Tekkit Toolbox ComputerCraft Episode 8: "Carrot on a Life". *When Liam deride's Bunce's humour and tells his own joke, Bunce calls him a stick in the same way Towlie tells other people "You're a towel" in the Season 10 South Park episode "A Million Little Fibers". Andy adds a brief "thir". *Mid-stream, DragonHat changes into a Dead Rising T-shirt, which is later referenced when Leokul reports seeing zombies. *DragonHat declares that he's on a boat (CW: swearing), which prompts Crane to recite "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" Old Spice advert. *When Buncible talks to chat about breakfast foods, Yogscast community moderator Zach asks him if he likes American-style pancakes or waffles, reminding Buncible of the time he was beseiged by hundreds of bots asking him the same question. *Crane starts singing "Short table, long table...". Behind the streams *Ana has her first on-stream doughnuts. *Tobi Hatter's fan art of Tossur and Gullespie is shown. *Bug and Simpson make an appearances. So do Bug's genitals. *While talking to chat, Crane describes Mira as the 'prettiest eagle', the first reference to Mira being 'pretty'. She says Mira has won the 'Being Eagles' contest seven years running. s3